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"Well, sometimes nothing is a real cool hand."

Indeed.

- Hank

Goodbye.

- Hank

Man. Blu-Ray. This is the most infuriating and great thing that has happened in quite some time. I remember it like it was yesterday. The DVD bug. Going to Fry's Electronics every Tuesday. Spending thirty bucks on Permanent Midnight... Zero Effect... pretty much whatever indie Ben Stiller movie was coming out at inflated late 90s DVD prices. It was insane. To think about all that income wasted on foolish purchases. Movies I liked, but wasn't savvy enough to realize I was paying way too much for. As the years went by, I amassed an asininely large collection. Then I started working at the Old Record Store, and my access to DVDs was similar to a heroin addict driving the Heroin Truck. I started trading in my old mistakenly purchased titles, things I didn't watch, wouldn't watch, couldn't comprehend the purchase of, and acquired new titles. Things that I really wanted. My collection shrunk and changed shape. It was better than ever. Then a few years ago I start hearing word of these hi-definition discs and players. Hogwash, I said. What could look better than these DVD restorations? Nothing, that's what, stupid-mouth. How wrong I was.

A vicious war enused. HD discs, headed by Toshiba, and Blu-Ray, launced by Sony. Hmm. A hardware and software company battling a hardware, software, movie studio, video game conglomerate. Think about the early 80s VHS against Betamax war, only a slightly less good VHS was already around. Who would bite? Who could win? Rich honkeys in their 30s and 40s with home theaters were the biters. Think laserdisc collectors in the early 90s. The victor was Sony. They put all their chips in, and signed an exclusivity deal with Disney. As The Mouse goes, so goes the nation. Say goodnight HD.

Now that the field has cleared (you can search the battlefields and still find sealed HD discs with little effort) the home video companies having been trucking out titles at an alarming rate. And although you can get Stealth in Blu-Ray, you don't have to. You can get all sorts of worthwile titles. I'm not talking worthwhile like Shoot 'Em Up, though you can get that, I'm talking "films," to borrow a misused term. Cool Hand Luke. The Wild Bunch. Patton. The Godfather Trilogy is coming out on Tuesday. Coppola sat down when the battle was raging and began his new hi-definition re-mastering before it was clear who was going to win the war. He is now launching his flagship titles in just in time for the first Christmas post-HDWI.

It's an exciting time for moobie lovers.

Here's a list of selected titles available now:



And coming soon:

- Hank

On September 18th, the SF MOMA is opening an exhibit called Double Down: Two Visions of Las Vegas. One of the two artists featured is photographer Olivo Barbieri. Olivo uses a tilt-shift lens and photographs the ground while riding high above it in a helicopter. The effect on the final product is insanity inducing:



I've been infatuated with his photos and have spent the last few days attempting to digest any and all information about Barbieri that I can find. The coolest news, other than the upcoming exhibition opening, is that there's a book coming out in October about his recent project, photographing waterfalls. Suffice it to say I will be buying this book, looking at this book, and continuing to scrutinize every aspect of these photos. I brain think sad now explodey.

- Hank

- Hank